The possibility exists, said Mr. Bachar, that a future
for Jews might develop in Russia. Mayor
Yuri Luzhkov of Moscow is friendly and helpful to the Jewish
population. However, the Jewish community
infrastructure requires considerable strengthening if a
Jewish community is to thrive, he added.
In response to a question, Mr. Bachar acknowledged
that the continuing failure of the
government of Israel to appoint a new ambassador to replace
Zvi Magen (who had left Moscow some months previously to become
the new director of Nativ) is creating problems for Israel. The
absence of an ambassador is an insult to Russia. Although a small
country, Israel is very important to Russia, Mr. Bachar said,
and the Russians have very high expectations for Israel.
27. Mari Dieterich
is Second Secretary and Human Rights Officer in the Political
Section of the Embassy of the United
States in Moscow. Ms. Dieterich said that concern about
Russian antisemitism had eased
since the summer attacks, which included the stabbing of a Jewish
activist in the Moscow Choral Synagogue. The antisemitism of Albert
Makashov, the leader of the nationalist faction of the
Communist Party in the Russian Duma, almost seems routine at this
point, she commented. In response to a question, Ms. Dieterich
acknowledged that she had not studied the impact of the Jewish
oligarchs on Russian antisemitism, but Boris Berezovsky seems
to be a problem.
Neo-Nazis,
said Ms. Dieterich, posed a danger in some areas of Russia, but
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov will
not tolerate them in Moscow. They appear elsewhere during crises,
such as the flare-up in hostilities in Kosovo, but they seem to
have no plans, no objectives. They appear to know what they are
against, she said, but not
what they are for.
Commenting about indigenous
Jewish organizations in Russia, Ms. Dieterich said that
many, such as the Va’ad, seem to have a “counterpart
in every NGO [non-government organization] in Russia.” In
general, Russian NGO’s are characterized by a top-down style
of leadership, inability to delegate authority, a lack of organizational
skills, inadequate fundraising capacity, and inability to manage
whatever funds they have. A question for almost every NGO, she
said, is whether it will be able to survive its founding leadership.
Many NGO founders, she continued, were heroic figures during the
late Soviet period. However, dissidents or underground leaders
do not necessarily possess the acumen and skills necessary to
lead an organization in an open society. Because of their heroic
pasts, many such individuals are honored and protected in their
current posts long after they should be replaced.
28. Through Ms. Dieterich and Paul Martin, another
U.S. diplomat, the writer was invited to a reception and buffet
dinner at the Embassy of Sweden
to meet with a four-person delegation from the Statens
Invandrarverk (Swedish State Immigration Board) and the
Aliens Appeals Board of Sweden.86
The delegation was investigating the extent of antisemitism in
the post-Soviet successor states in view of applications
for asylum in Sweden by post-Soviet Jews claiming antisemitic
persecution in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Their itinerary included
St. Petersburg, Moscow, Minsk, and Kyiv.
The writer conferred with two of the four delegates,
Barbro Uppling of the
State Immigration Board and Ulf
Salomonsson of the Alien Appeals Board. Both Ms. Uppling
and Mr. Salomonsson are lawyers. In response to questions, they
said that 50 to 60 Jews from the post-Soviet states enter Sweden
illegally each year, most through Finland, which they also enter
illegally. Neither of the two delegates nor officials of the Embassy
of Sweden denied the existence of antisemitism in the post-Soviet
states, but the conclusion among these individuals and their colleagues
in Sweden is that almost all post-Soviet Jewish illegal immigrants
are seeking economic opportunity, rather than political asylum.
Consequently, few are permitted to stay in Sweden.
The Swedish delegates, Swedish diplomats, and
the general atmosphere of the evening all seemed rather casual
and light-hearted considering the usually serious issues of illegal
border crossings and requests for political asylum. This ambience
and the reality that Mr. Salomonsson was on his fourth fact-finding
tour (and, in his pursuit of such ventures, has visited numerous
cities in the post-Soviet states) led to remarks among some non-Swedes
at the event that he seems to be making a mid-life career of fact-finding
missions.
The writer was approached at the Embassy by Matts
Feuer, a Swedish diplomat with responsibility for dealing
with Russia on the question of Raoul
Wallenberg.87
(Mr. Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat in Budapest who helped
save as many as 100,000 Hungarian Jews from the Nazis and was
then taken prisoner by Soviet occupation forces in January 1945.
The official Soviet account of his fate is that he died in a Soviet
prison in 1947. However, numerous reports have surfaced of his
appearance in the Soviet Union after that date.) A member of a
bilateral Swedish-Russian commission established in 1990 to investigate
Mr. Wallenberg’s fate, Mr. Feuer stated that the Russian
government is now very forthcoming in probing this matter. The
problem in reaching a definitive conclusion, said Mr. Feuer, lies
with “certain elderly individuals” in Russia who could
provide essential information, but will not do so. Mr. Feuer believes
that these individuals are “ashamed” of their own
roles in the disappearance of Mr. Wallenberg and are “fearful”
of the consequences if their roles become known. It is likely,
said Mr. Feuer, that the issue will never be resolved. Every theory
that has been advanced about the fate of Mr. Wallenberg has some
merit, said Mr. Feuer. Mr. Feuer added that a computer analysis
of the records of the notorious Vladimir prison, where Mr. Wallenberg
is reported by some to have been seen in the 1960s, is currently
under way. It is hoped that the analysis will establish whether
or not he really was incarcerated there during that time period.